


last year took a toll on me (but i made it with you next to me)

by hearden



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 04:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13263813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearden/pseuds/hearden
Summary: Jason refuses to take any time off to himself, so Billy comes up with a loophole.





	last year took a toll on me (but i made it with you next to me)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gingayellow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/gifts).



> for alpha's magical fic exchange 2017: happy holidays and happy new year!!! i hope this lives up to what you wanted, and i had a lot of fun writing cranscott and jason being an oblivious dork and billy trying to get him out of his head x)

In truth, it only takes Jason a short while to fix his truck up. But, then, Rita comes back, dragging a Green Ranger with her, and the stress him and the others go through in a matter of weeks is enough to make him implode.

Tommie Oliver is simultaneously nothing and everything like he expected. Rita couldn't fully use her power coin, so she did the next best thing -- she chose an unsuspecting, vulnerable teenager to prey on and use it through.

Just to add to everything on his plate, Jason has to deal with having another person on the team. He doesn't mind Tommie. At all. And the others don't mind her, either, even after how badly she kicked their asses around a few times, surprisingly enough.

But, she's closed off, still hurting, still reeling from what it's like to be brainwashed by Rita, and still adjusting to being on a team of _superheroes_ \-- so Jason tries his best, but whenever she makes it clear that she doesn't want to talk about it, he gives up.

He smashes his truck. Goes out after midnight when he's supposed to be asleep and his dad's out on his boat and takes the biggest wrench from his toolbox he can find and goes to town.

The outburst wakes up his mom and Pearl, and both of them have to drag him away, fuming and angry at nothing.

It's somewhere between his mom forcing a mug of hot chocolate into his hands and what he vaguely remembers to be tears on his cheeks that he begs them not to tell his dad.

Sam turns in the next morning just as Jason's having breakfast before school.

His father looks at him. He looks back.

Sam doesn't ask and heads for the bedroom.

Jason breathes a sigh of relief.

 

-

 

Kim also doesn't ask when he sends her a text to let him hitch a ride to school. With his short notice, he's the last one to be picked up since she didn't plan to swing by, so he squeezes into the back, pushing Trini to the middle, next to Zack, much to her annoyance.

Billy, however, _does_ ask.

"What happened to your truck?"

Jason looks up from his phone. Everyone else is staring at his truck, just sitting there next to the house, in ruins, almost as bad as when he'd first crashed it.

"Uh, I didn't feel like driving," he mutters, shrugging. It's a crappy answer -- not even an actual answer, really, so he changes the subject, "Tommie's still not coming with us?"

"She said she was gonna bike herself to school," Kim says, frowning, and Jason detects the slightest hint of hurt in her voice.

He adds it to his list of things that he has to deal with.

The car ride goes on in silence, only ending when Kim finds a parking spot in the student lot. Jason gets out before Kim even fully turns the engine off, but that doesn't stop Billy from getting out right next to him from the passenger side.

"Are you okay?" Billy asks, his brow furrowing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jason answers without missing a beat, slinging his bag over his shoulder, "I gotta go."

"Uh," Billy glances at his phone, "But class doesn't start for another thirty minutes."

"I have, um, tutoring," Jason throws over his shoulders as he leaves.

That's definitely a lie, but he keeps walking even as he hears Trini mutter, "What the hell's his problem?"

 

-

 

He roams the halls until classes start, making sure to steer clear of the cafeteria and the courtyard where he knows the others are going to be grabbing some breakfast or just hanging out before class.

That, unfortunately, leaves him to run into Tommie. Or fortunately. Depends.

"Hey," he says, almost literally running straight into her as he rounds the corner.

"Oh," she tugs her green jacket closer around her body, keeps her eyes low, "Hey."

"How are you?"

"Fine. You?"

"Good. Fine."

It briefly occurs to him that they're both lying. He wonders if she knows. He definitely does.

"Heard you're still biking to school," he says and frowns when she tenses, "You know, we have space in Kim's car."

Tommie shakes her head, "I saw you get here with the others. Five people in a sedan -- there's no room for me."

He tilts his head, "We're a team. There's always room for you."

That was the wrong thing to say. Apparently. She hunches her shoulders and brushes past him, "Bye, Jason."

"I--" he sighs, "Bye."

 

-

 

He's quiet during lunch. Nobody says anything, and when he looks up, Kim and Trini keep throwing glances over to where Tommie sits by herself at another table.

"Go talk to her," Kim says.

"No, _you_ go talk to her," Trini mutters back.

"Just leave her alone," Jason cuts in, drawing surprised looks from everyone else.

Zack stares, "You want us… to leave her _alone_?"

"She wants to be left alone," Jason says as if that justifies everything. It doesn't, but talking has never been a big thing for him.

"Leaving her alone is exactly how Rita could get to her again," Trini frowns and arches an eyebrow at him, "Team's only as strong as our weakest link, and currently, our weakest link is sitting by herself at lunch and avoiding us at every turn."

He doesn't meet her gaze but looks at Billy instead, "What do you think, Billy?"

Billy takes a moment to gather his thoughts and pokes at his food before speaking. "I think," he says, slowly, looking directly at Jason, "Talking isn't the way to get to her. She's closed herself off, so… she wasn't chosen the same way we were. You could even say she isn't wired like us, you know, our team. The bond we have."

Jason shifts under Billy's gaze and clears his throat, "So? What do you suggest?"

"Try something else," Billy answers, "Something different."

 

-

 

He's fixing up his truck _again_ when Billy walks up the driveway, fiddling with something in his hands. It looks like a little robot of some sorts, but Jason can never be sure if it's a detonator in disguise or something.

"Hey," Jason greets with a nod, "Need something?"

Billy shrugs, "I was wondering what you were up to."

Jason taps the wrench in his hand against the open hood. It _clanks_ loudly. "As you can see, I'm fixing up this piece of garbage," he says, almost sarcastically.

Billy frowns, glancing over the truck, "Did _you_ break it?"

He sighs and turns around, ignoring the question, "What're you here for, Billy?"

"Um," Billy nods to himself like he's going through his thoughts in his head, "I have… tickets to Ragnarok, and I can't find someone to go with. Have you seen it yet?"

Jason scratches his forehead and shrugs, "I mean, I was just gonna catch it when it got on Netflix or something. I'm kinda too busy to, you know, go to the movies." He gestures at the truck, letting it explain itself. Jason's made it a point to see movies in theaters, of course, but with everything that's been going on, it's hard to not talk himself out of spending two hours at a movie theater. That's good time he could be spending doing homework or training or running through drills with the others or something else much more productive. "What about the others?"

"Well, Trini and Kim said they were going to try to see if Tommie wanted to hang out with them, and Zack's studying and spending some time with his mom," Billy says, then, "You have some… grease on your…" He motions to his own forehead.

"Oh," Jason wipes his hand on his jeans, dirtying them up more than cleaning his hands, and shrugs, "It happens." He clears his throat, "You already bought the tickets?"

Billy nods and checks his watch, "The movie's in two hours at eight."

Jason thinks about it for a moment and relents, sighing as he closes the hood of his truck, "Alright, I can go. Just lemme put my tools away and, uh, take a shower."

 

-

 

Over the next few weeks, Jason ends up stepping in when Billy has prior plans and the others are busy. Even when Tommie finally comes around, Billy says she's busy spending time with Trini or Kim. It's always something else -- Kim having dinner with her family, Trini studying for a test, Zack doing some odd-end job across town, Tommie practicing for an upcoming tournament, the list went on. He finds it a little odd, but he can't really say no to the fact that Billy's already got tickets for a movie or a small local concert that plays music _exactly_ like the kind Jason likes.

Well, that second one's a little brow-raising, but Jason isn't always the most perceptive tool in the shed.

It all comes to a head at lunch, a few weeks after he'd first gone to the movies with Billy.

Billy ducks away to go to the restroom, and Jason picks that moment to casually ask the others, "So, how come you guys are always so busy to hang out with Billy?"

He's met with four equally confused looks. Well, three. Trini just looks nonchalantly bored, as she always does.

"What're you talking about?" Kim asks, raising an eyebrow.

"He's always making plans," Jason explains between bites of his burger, "And everyone else is always busy."

"I have no clue--" Kim starts, but Trini cuts her off with a hand in the air.

"Wait, does Billy tell you we're busy?" Trini asks.

"Uh, yeah," he nods at Tommie, "We went to the movies a couple of days ago because he'd bought tickets already and he said you were practicing for that karate match."

Tommie squints at him, "I was busy, yeah, but Billy… never asked me to go to anything."

"What?" Jason sets his burger back down on his plate and blinks. He looks at Trini, "So, you weren't studying for a math test last week?"

Trini rolls her eyes, "No, I _was,_ but I wasn't ever invited to go anywhere."

He glances at Kim and Zack, who both shake their heads.

"Last time I hung out with Billy was before, you know," Zack nods at Tommie, "Green Ranger thing."

"I don't get it," Jason mutters, absolutely, utterly confused.

Kim and Trini get it at the same time, and Kim fights to hide a smile.

"I think you should ask Billy," she suggest while glancing at Trini and snickering.

Billy chooses that moment to come back to the table, and conversation restarts as if Jason hadn't said a word.

 

-

 

That night, Billy comes over to watch a movie on the Scotts' couch.

It's something -- Avengers or Thor or Homecoming -- Jason's not really paying attention.

Halfway through, he grabs the remote, abruptly, and pauses it, turning to face Billy.

Billy blinks at him then looks at the empty popcorn bowl on the table, "Did you wanna get more popcorn?"

"Why are you here?" Jason asks, instead.

"Uh…" Billy briefly looks like he's asking himself if that's a rhetorical question or not, "I'm here… because we agreed on watching a movie at your place?"

"What about the others?"

"Oh, they're busy," Billy says, immediately, nodding.

"With what?"

"Studying."

Jason narrows his eyes. "Did you ask them?"

"What?" Billy glances away, very interested in the popcorn bowl, "I should get some more popcorn."

"Billy, did you _ask_ them?" Jason raises his eyebrows, "Because I was talking to the others at lunch today, and Trini said you hadn't invited her to hang out, and everyone else said the same thing, too."

"Well," he twiddles his thumbs then admits, "No."

"Why?"

Billy shrugs and turns to look at Jason, "Everyone _was_ actually busy, yes, but I didn't… I didn't ask them. You needed to destress."

Jason scoffs, " _I_ needed to destress?"

"Jason, you wrecked your truck," Billy deadpans.

"Whatever," he huffs, rolling his eyes. But silently conceding. Because Billy has a point as he always does. "So, what, you found reasons to get me out of the house?"

Billy contemplates it for a moment then nods, "Essentially, yes."

"You could've just… asked."

Billy raises his eyebrows and shakes his head, "No, I couldn't have."

"Yes, you _could_ have."

"Fine. Would you have said yes if you thought I just wanted to hang out? Or would you have told me to see if one of the others was free?"

Jason falters, not immediately having an answer, and Billy gestures with his hand as if to prove his point.

"I'm going to make more popcorn," he says, getting up and leaving Jason to float in his thoughts. For a long, long two minutes, the only sound in the house is the steady _pop pop pop_ from the microwave and then the beeping when the timer is over.

Billy sits back down with a refreshed bowl and offers it to Jason, "Popcorn?"

He wordlessly takes a handful, still staring at Billy.

"You know," Billy says, taking a handful himself before putting the bowl back on the coffee table, "If you're done staring at me, there was something I actually wanted to ask you."

Jason shoves a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth and chews, wanting a few more moments to his own thoughts before anything else, "Um, okay. Shoot."

Billy clears his throat, "I was wondering… Would you like to go on a date with me?"

**Author's Note:**

> title from There For You - Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan
> 
> don't worry, jason def said yes but i liked ending the fic on the question bc #aesthetic


End file.
